The Friendship Files: Top-Secret Mission
by LanieSullivan
Summary: This is another piece of "The Friendship Files" for the episode "Mission of Gold" and is a companion piece to "The List" and "The Choices We Make" While this one can stand alone, some of the plot is related to events in the other two and this one is a prequel of sorts to them.


**The Friendship Files: Top-Secret Mission**

Disclaimer: "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" is copyrighted to Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon Productions. The plot is mine, but not the characters. This story is meant for enjoyment purposes only. No infringement is intended.

Summary: This is another piece of "The Friendship Files" for the episode "Mission of Gold" and is a companion piece to "The List" and "The Choices We Make" While this one can stand alone, some of the plot is related to events in the other two and this one is a prequel of sorts to them.

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Francine was elated when she heard Lee's voice on the speakerphone in Billy's office gushing with happiness and relief that Amanda had finally regained consciousness and was on the road to recovery. "That's good news," She replied and couldn't help the bit of gush in her own voice, her whole body relaxing for the first time since Lee had stunned them with the news that Amanda had taken a bullet through the chest that had been meant for someone else.

Lee told them that he would be faxing his report in soon, as would Sheriff Waterhouse, that he and Amanda would be home the next day and said his good-byes to both of them. After disconnecting the call, Billy smiled at Francine and he breathed a sigh of relief. "Some good news, at last," He said. "You seem pretty happy about it too."

"Of course I am," Francine answered a bit snappishly. _What was Billy implying,_ she mused. "Do you think I wanted her dead? I mean, I know that we haven't always gotten along, but I never...ever would have wished something like this one her. Besides, we...uh..." she hesitated for a moment, but then took a deep breath and thought, _what the hell_. "We have been getting along much better lately."

"So, I noticed." Billy grinned at her.

Francine shifted awkwardly in her seat and stammered, "I-I-I...Uh...I should go check the fax machine to see if Lee's report came in yet." She made a hasty retreat from Billy's office. _Stupid,_ she mentally scolded herself. _You almost let it slip that you actually_ _ **like**_ _Amanda King._ She shook her head as she walked to the fax machine as another inner voice chided her, _but what's so wrong with that. She's loyal and dependable and not such a bad person to have as a friend._

She sighed at the empty tray on the fax machine. "Come on, Lee," she hissed as her other inner voice argued back, _Friend? Amanda King and I are_ _ **not**_ _friends. She's-_

 _Resourceful, insightful, and has saved your ass a few times,_ the practical voice inside her interrupted. "Damn it, Lee, Come on!" she said louder getting the attention of the bullpen as she tried to silence her argument with herself.

"Everything okay, Francine," Fred Fielder asked her as he approached her cautiously. With Francine, you just never knew which personality you were going to get.

"Fine, Fred," She replied nonchalantly as if nothing was wrong.

He nodded toward the fax machine and inquired, "You waiting on something?"

"Yeah, Lee's report on Amanda's shooting," she answered as she turned back to the stubbornly quiet machine, "but he's taking his sweet time sending it.

"Ah," Fred nodded. He knew Francine was not known for her patience. "Well, maybe while you're waiting, you could help me with something."

 _Yes, a distraction!_ Her voice of denial shouted. "Shoot," she said, a bit too gleefully as she turned back to Fred.

"I...um...I was getting ready to turn this report into to Billy," he indicated the file in his hand, "but I...um...I'm not quite sure that it's really complete. I feel like I'm missing something."

"Shocker," Francine muttered almost inaudibly.

"What?"

"Nothing," she replied. "What have you got?"

"Well, Billy asked me to track down the limo that Scarecrow and Mrs. King used on their last cover assignment and it was pretty easy to do since they left the homing device on. I found it, but I'm not quite sure why it was where it was."

Francine took the file from Fred and perused it, a bit curious in her own right since she'd seen Lee jump in the limo and Amanda peeling away from the McMasters' estate like a bat out of hell. "The Crystal Springs Inn in Marion?" she questioned.

"Uh-huh," Fred said, "And I...uh...I talked to the staff there and they said they were registered as Mr. and Mrs. Stetson."

"Interesting," Francine replied, her blue eyes dancing in amusement. _Maybe there's more to Amanda than you thought._ She knew that contrary to Amanda's elaborately concocted story about a break-up, she and Lee were still involved, but she never thought that she'd ever shack up with him in some out-of-the-way hotel. She surmised that that must be Lee becoming a bad influence on her, which was exactly what she'd been afraid of when she tried to warn Amanda away from him a month ago. She wondered if their obvious joint vacation would cause Lee to lose interest once Amanda had given him the whole buffet table, although, he had seemed pretty broken up about her being shot, so maybe that would be just the wake-up call that he needed.

"I thought so," Fred said, but then scratched his head. "But I'm confused. I thought they were off the duty roster for two weeks. Are they on some kind of top-secret mission? I searched the current assignments lists, but I couldn't find anything."

"Well, Fred, you know there are some missions that are so top-secret that they don't make it on the list." She then gave him a withering look and scolded, "An agent with your experience should know that by now."

"So, do you know what they were working on? Does it have something to do with Mrs. King being shot?"

"I'm sorry, Fred, but that's on a need-to-know basis," she replied aloofly with a vague smile. It wouldn't do any good to let him know that she didn't know either. She glanced at Fred's report again and said, "So, the time stamp on the homing device shows 7 PM. Did you backtrack it further than that? That means there's a two-hour gap from the time they took off with the limo. Maybe that's what you're missing."

"No," he answered sheepishly as he looked down at his shoes.

"You know what? Don't worry about it. I'll take it from here," Francine told him as she reassuringly patted him on the shoulder, "And I'll be sure to let Billy know what a great start you've got on this."

Fred's eyes lit up and said, "Really? You'd do that for me?"

"Of course," she answered with what she hoped was a sincere smile. "We are all a team here, aren't we? Now, go on. I'm sure you have other things to do." Fred nodded and took off happily just as Francine's attention was drawn away from his departing figure by the sound of the fax machine whirring. "Finally," she said elatedly as she went to retrieve the incoming documents. Her face fell though, when she realized that it was Waterhouse's report and not Lee's.

"Damn!' she swore, but grabbed the papers and returned with them to her desk. She guessed it was a start. She sat down, took a sip of her coffee and began to read the Sheriff's account of his investigation into Amanda's shooting. She nearly choked on her mouthful of coffee before she could swallow it when a particular passage startled her. She read it softly to herself to make sure she understood it, _I had a bit of difficulty keeping Mr. Stetson out of my investigation and advised him that he should just look after his wife..."_ She shook her head, repeating the words over and over again. "What the hell?" She then glanced back to Fred's report. "Mr. and Mrs. Stetson," she whispered. She gathered up the papers and bolted from her desk, quickly exited the bullpen to head for the surveillance department to fill in the missing time gap that bumbling Fred had overlooked.

An hour later, after learning that the limo had first been stopped at the Justice of the Peace in Marion, a call there to a Mrs Bowman who'd annoyed her to no end with her sweet granny voice and her gushing about "such a sweet couple," and compiling her investigation with Fred's and the report from Waterhouse, she entered Billy's office and unceremoniously dropped the whole shebang on his desk. "Did you know about this?" she demanded.

Billy opened the file, read for a moment and with a noncommittal shrug, he replied, "No, but I'm not surprised." His face then widened into a big grin and then he added, "I've known for a while that Lee was thinking of marrying Amanda."

"Well, I am," Francine retorted. "I mean, Lee...married. Somehow those words just don't seem like they belong in the same sentence."

"He's a changed man since he met Amanda," Billy pointed out.

"If he's so changed, then why did he marry her in secret? If you ask me, that's just his usual fear of commitment rearing its ugly head."

"I don't believe that's true, Francine."

"Do you think we should say something to them...when they get back, I mean?"

Billy shook his head. "No, they'll tell us about it when they're ready." He glanced down at the file again. "So, I see Fred is the one who started this. Does he know?"

Francine let out a snort of disbelief at Billy's question. "Are you kidding? Fred can't find his way to the right floor of this building without looking at the floor plan on the wall every day."

Billy laughed for a moment and responded, "True, but there might be enough here for even Fred to figure it out eventually."

"Puh-lease," she scoffed. "I'll bet you a hundred bucks that it takes him at least the next year to figure it out."

"A bet, huh?" Billy countered in delight. "Well, I'll bet _**you**_ that it doesn't take him more than six months."

"You're on," she said with a nod and reached across the desk to seal the deal with a handshake.

Billy released her hand and said with a smile, "I'll be damned. He actually did it."

Francine couldn't help being affected by Billy's smile, her own face breaking out into a smile and said softly, "No, Sir. _**She**_ did."

Three days later, after leaving the agency for the day, Francine stood nervously on Amanda's front steps waiting for the door to be answered now that Amanda was home. If Amanda questioned why she was there, she had a plan in mind to tell her that Billy had asked her to check in on her progress being unable to do so himself since Mrs. West knew who he was. She heard a thundering of footsteps and cries of "I'll get it!" "No, _**I'll**_ get it, Moon-head!" just before the door was flung open and she found herself face to face with Amanda's boys.

"Hi," she said, shuddering slightly at the inquisitive faces staring at her. "You must be Phillip and Jamie. My name is Francine Desmond. I work with your-"

Her words were cut off by Lee's voice approaching and admonishing the boys, "Fellas, can you take it down a notch, your mom's trying to rest."

"Why am I not surprised to see you here?" Francine said with a pointed look Lee's direction.

"Well, Amanda _is_ my partner," Lee replied tersely.

"Sure, partner, right," she said dubiously.

Unnerved by the knowing look on Francine's face, Lee said to the boys, "Hey, don't you guys still have homework to do?" When both boys grumbled, he halted it immediately by holding up both hands in a "stop" gesture. "Come on, guys, you know that's what your mom would want you to do."

When both boys took off to do as they were told, Francine gave him an impressed look, but then said sarcastically, "How very Father Knows Best of you."

"What do you want, Francine?" Lee crossed his arms and looked at her in annoyance.

Francine stepped into the house, closed the door behind her and answered, "I came to check on Amanda." When Lee gave her a curious look tinged with a hint of amusement, she quickly added, "Billy wanted me to."

"Ohhhh, Billy wanted you to, huh?" he responded skeptically and then grinned at her. He knew that was a big fat lie because he had just phoned Billy ten minutes ago to update him on Amanda's condition. "You know, if you don't want to be here, there's the door," He pointed behind her to the front door.

"Oh, no, not until I've done my job and found out how Amanda's doing."

"Well, I'll save you some time. Amanda's recovering nicely. She still has to be on pain medication to sleep worth a damn, but she's gonna' be just fine, Francine. There you go, job well done. Now you can report back to Billy."

"Not until I see her for myself," Francine argued as she tried to push her way past him toward the stairs.

"No," Lee said adamantly as he stopped her with both hands on her shoulders. "I'm not going to have you getting her worked up with one of your snide comments while she's trying to rest so that she can heal."

"What makes you think I'd make any?" She couldn't believe him. Did her really think that she'd be that insensitive when Amanda had nearly died? "Is that really what you think of me?"

"It's not about what I think of you. It's about what you think of Amanda and let's face it, Francine; you've made your feelings about me and Amanda perfectly clear." He wondered just how she'd react if she knew that Amanda was more than just a "casual flirtation" to him, as she'd once put it.

"What I think of Amanda right now is that she could use a friend," Francine retorted.

"Friend?' He questioned, dropping his hands from her shoulders in disbelief. "When have you and Amanda ever been friends?"

"Well, lately, we've been friend...ly." _Why can't you just admit that you're her friend,_ the practical voice chided her.

"Oooh, Friend-LY, huh?" Lee couldn't hide his amusement at Francine's hesitation.

"I-I-" Francine was spared answering by Amanda's voice coming from behind Lee.

"Who was at the door?" Amanda asked. Both Lee and Francine turned her direction.

"Amanda, what are you doing out of bed," Lee scolded in much the same tone that he had her boys a few minutes before.

Francine watched, a bit awe-struck at Lee sliding her arm to Amanda's lower back as if to steady her as she was a bit wobbly on her feet.

"Lee, stop," Amanda replied. "I'm not disabled. Dr. Neely said I could get up and move around as long as I don't overdo it and risk pulling my stitches."

"Yeah, I know," Lee said in a softer tone as he tenderly caressed her face with his free hand, "But you know that pain medication has been making you a bit loopy."

"And if I were driving or operating heavy machinery, that would be a problem," Amanda countered, "But there's nothing in the warnings on the prescription that says that I can't move around my own house." She slipped out of Lee's grasp and stepped into the den.

Lee shook his head and muttered, "Stubborn."

Francine laughed at Lee's obvious frustration and couldn't help wondering if their wedding vows had been the traditional ones that included the word "obey." If so, Amanda would be breaking that vow in no time.

"You think this is funny?" Lee turned on her.

At seeing the look of fury on Lee's face, Francine said, "You know, I'm just going to go say hi to Amanda." and pushed past him into the den where Amanda had just settled herself on the sofa watching with a smile as her boys worked on their homework seated on the floor at the coffee table.

"Hello, Francine," Amanda greeted her warmly.

"Hello, yourself. How ya' feeling?"

Amanda shrugged. "I still have some pain, but I'm getting a little better every day," she answered optimistically.

They chatted for a while and Francine, reassured that her "friend" really was on the road to recovery, said her good-byes and Lee offered to walk her to her car. When they stepped outside, he finally called her out. "Okay, Francine, so I know that Billy didn't send you here because I just talked to him right before you got here when Amanda's mom took off to the supermarket to pick up some things for dinner."

"Dinner, huh? Are you staying for that dinner?" She queried with an arched eyebrow. It was clear in her brief observance of the children that they didn't know that Lee was their stepfather, so she knew that their "top-secret mission" was a secret to the family too, but yet Lee seemed completely at home in a way that she'd never seen him before.

"Actually, if you must know, I'm cooking that dinner," Lee replied.

"Then why aren't you the one doing the shopping?"

"Because Dotty volunteered to do it," he answered.

"Dotty, is it? You're on a first-name basis with her mom now?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"I'm just saying, that's a pretty big step for you, getting to know her family," she explained trying to provoke him into admitting that he was a married man now.

"Well, I _**have**_ spent the last three nights here, helping Dotty look after Amanda," Lee informed her.

"Oh?" She questioned with a look of surprise on her face. She then gave him a spicy grin and asked, "And where exactly have you been sleeping? Last I knew, this house only had three bedrooms and they're all occupied, unless, the house suddenly grew an extra one."

"Get your mind out of the gutter," Lee snapped. "I've been sleeping on the pull-out in her living room."

"Ah," she replied, but still looked skeptical as she imagined being newly married and having their honeymoon interrupted, that was the last place that he wanted to be sleeping.

Off her look, Lee groused, "What is it you want, Francine? You came to see Amanda, not that you seem willing to admit that that's why you came."

"Okay, okay, I admit it! I wanted to see in person how she was. Are you happy now?" When Lee nodded and gave her a smug look. "Don't you get cocky with me," she barked. "Why won't you admit that you-" Her sentence was cut off by Amanda's Wagoneer being pulled into the driveway by Dotty. "You know what? I gotta' go." As she got into her car, she thought back to Fred's question of a few days ago about whether they were on a top-secret mission. "Yes, Fred, they are," she said aloud.

Lee shook his head at Francine's abrupt exit just as Dotty was getting out of the car and questioned, "Who was that? She looks vaguely familiar."

"She's...uh...a friend of mine...and Amanda's." He knew it would be a long time before Francine would ever acknowledge that she was Amanda's friend, but whether she admitted it or not, he knew it was true. He shook his head again as he watched Francine car's peeling away from the curb and said to his mother-in-law. "Come on, I'll help you with the groceries."


End file.
